Call me nosy but there are so many jobs out there that I didn’t know existed or are different from what I expected them to be. So ladies of Reddit, how do you make money and what is it about your job/hustle/business that works for you?
I’ll go first. I’m a proposal writer (for large B2B or government contracts, companies complete proposals/questionnaires that allow a company to compare the offerings of the suppliers they are considering. I answer those questions and create any additional materials needed.) I love it because it’s the perfect intersection between aspects I have loved about all my previous jobs like writing, selling but without the rejection, project management, and copy strategy. It really works for me because it is incredibly flexible as long as I meet my deadlines which is wonderful for work-life balance. Also I work in an all woman team and the positivity and knowledge sharing in our weekly meetings is beautiful.
Your turn.
Comments
I’m a civil engineer, government side. I currently run a design program that I founded which bridges the gap between three departments and reduces the cost of many infrastructure projects.
It works for me because it is well paid and as a single mom of three, that’s priority 1. I also very rarely have to work more than 40 hours in a week, so my life stays very balanced. The pay, contrary to popular belief, is fantastic (they’d never retain engineers if they didn’t pay market rate), and as everyone knows, so are the benefits (insurance deductible? Never met her.)
I literally created my own job by bringing together skills that I’d acquired throughout my career and realizing I could save us $0.5M/yr just by doing this design work myself. My director took me up on it, and when it worked better than she expected it to, she let me hire staff. So now I run a team and produce obscure yet necessary work while being paid great and having plenty of time for my kids, my friends, lunchtime workouts, and other hobbies.
Unsurprisingly, two of my kids want to be civil engineers, too.
I write software for a company that isn’t on the “let’s become a unicorn!” train
It works for me because I like the product I work on (I used it before I joined the company, for years), I believe it makes the world better, I work from home 90% of the time, I like the people I work with, I have a not-insignificant amount of freedom to choose what I work on, and the benefits are cool—not the best I’ve ever had in my life, but literally “cool” like last year my job paid for about half of my vacation
Oh also I have less than three hours of meetings per week.
I’m a hospitalist doctor. What that means is that I take care of patients who are already sick enough to be admitted to the hospital. 8-4pm job, 17 days a month. Only one weekend. What that means is that I end up having 7 days off in a row per month, giving me flexibility for Dr appts, and other errands and admin. It pays decently, and there’s so many extra shifts available. That if I know I’ll have an expense coming up, I’ll just work a couple of extra days here and there. And the extra pay is significant.
I’m a nanny. I came to the US as an aupair and continued to work with childcare even after. It’s not a traditional 9-5, but I truly love it so much. It makes me feel very fulfilled knowing that I can help a family out and allow them to also perform their jobs.
I’ve beaten myself up so many times for not working corporate and not going the traditional route (got some judgement from family along the way), but I am so happy about it that now I don’t even care anymore.
I manage a computational group in R&D at a mid sized company. The work life balance is great, the pay is good for living in a low COL area, and the people I work with are wonderful. I did a 6 year PhD in engineering before this role.
I’m a former aerospace structural engineer. My team focused primarily on the wings and put them under rigorous testing to make sure they were flight ready. It was a fun career and I got to work on some really cool projects. It paid well and I had a pretty good work life balance.
I work part-time as a middle school study hall teacher while attending graduate school.
I work two half days and one full day a week. Working with the kids is so inspiring, and they say something every day that makes me laugh or think.
I also enjoy the perks of getting a ton of downtime. On my half days, I work 4 hours but have a 1 1/2 flex period of nonwork. But I get paid for the 4 hours. I have started wiping down all the desks and chairs during this period because I noticed they looked dirty. But this does not take long. On my 8-hour days, I get 2 hours of free time but get paid for the full 8. I don’t know any jobs with this kind of flexibility, but I wouldn’t be upset if I finished my working years with this schedule.
So, for me, it’s the perfect job 🤷🏻♀️ I get to say I’m a teacher using my degree without all the responsibility of a real teacher and a ton of downtime. Awesome, if you ask me. I don’t know why other moms with older kids or semi-retired people don’t consider this position an option.
I work for a state run work and personal development program for young adults, the program is also a type of emergency response organization. They typically respond to fire or flood emergencies. The program provides housing for the young adult participants and due to that they’re required to have staff on site 24/7.
I work the overnight shift from midnight to eight in the morning. I am on site in case of emergencies either the participants need to be dispatched to or an onsite emergency. I provide support for the participants if they need it during the wee hours of the day. Teach some practical life skills like cleaning and how to communicate with superiors or peers and the different communication styles you can have with each of those categories of people.
It works for me because I can work full time, I have insurance, my actual interaction with people is pretty minimal and I have plenty of time to work on my education. Becauseast year when I was 34 I finally realized what it is I want to be when I grow up. So I’m finally going to college and this job allows me the time and independence to pursue my education while getting paid. The job also feeds me at least once a day so I don’t need to count that meal in my weekly grocery planning.
I work at a university, and split my time between being an exec assistant to one of the very senior people and acting as a professional development coach for members of one of the faculties.
I’m a good EA because the management techniques I used to become a funcitonal human being through 35 years of undiagnosed ADHD are surprisingly identical to those needed to herd academic cats, and I’m a good coach because I’ve always had a real curiosity about why and how people work as they do, paired with a core value and motivation to lift the people around me up and see them grow into themselves.
For both, I’m comfortably paid, and university benefits (hours, leave, hybrid working, entitlements, discounts etc.) are great. And the combination is weirdly looking like it’ll open doors – the change management, comms, transformation, continuous improvement sort of people have started to look really keen to court me.
I’m a proposal writer too!!! I’ve been doing it for ten years and for the last two years I’ve been doing it for corporate lawyers. It’s FASCINATING. I just sit around and read hot tea all day.
I am a cybersecurity manager for a university. I plan out projects and initiatives for my team that align with our strategic goals and project manage large implementations. I also provide mentorship and training opportunities to student workers. A lot of my time is spent collaborating with other teams and departments to understand our business needs and how to minimise risk across the full university community.
I’m a corporate paralegal. I’m nosey so I wanted a job that would pay me to do so. The pay is really good, benefits are excellent and I rarely work late. Plus I get to meet celebs sometimes. I love it. Based in South Florida.
Data scientist.
Why it works for me?
Very good money
It’s laid back
I set the ETA for the tasks
I love working with data and learning
Easy to find opportunities because good, experienced ones are hard to find
I can work in any field because data is the core for all fields now. So far I have worked in finance, travel, telecom, healthcare
There are always opportunities to learn something totally new
Because I can get opportunities and can work remotely, I can live anywhere in the world
I’m a freelance graphic designer. I work from home and I couldn’t be happier about it. I used to work in many agencies and I wasn’t happy. I switched to freelancing after the last company I worked for had some legal troubles and closed down. It was such a toxic environment that I got sick.
It’s not easy to be self employed, because I’m responsible for everything, and the economy isn’t the best. Plus I’m really really bad at “selling” myself. But I wouldn’t have it any other way.
I work in student financial aid for a university. I fell into this after being a social worker for about a decade. I wanted something that still worked with people on their goals but was less high stakes than child welfare or homeless services, so I thought academic advising would be that. I applied for every job I qualified for at colleges and universities near me and landed an entry level job in financial aid. I really liked it, so I stayed and got a masters in higher ed administration and worked my way up to assistant director.
It works for me because it’s a really great blend of working with students/families, but also keeping up with and interpreting policy and how it affects our processing. Plus a lot of time just sitting in my office putting together financial aid packages. And in my current job, at least, I rarely get yelled at or have to sit with people crying because they have no idea where they’re going to sleep tonight or if their children will ever come home to them.
It’s also a pretty standard 9-5 type job with decent benefits and a lot of vacation/flexibility and I work from home half the time. Plus it’s a quick 15-20 minute bus/subway/bike ride depending on my mood.